Conventional reservation systems include, for example, ticket brokers, such as Ticketmaster™ or travel agencies, which offer tickets for sale to customers from various businesses. The various businesses represent various events, such as theater performances, musical concerts, sporting events, etc., or represent various transportation carriers for airplanes, trains, buses, boats, etc. Each ticket typically represents a reservation of a particular seat at a particular event or on a particular transportation carrier for a particular customer. A ticket broker usually receives blocks of tickets from each of the various businesses to sell to customers. The ticket broker organizes the blocks of tickets according to the price, type and date of the event or transportation carrier, etc. The ticket broker provides customers access to the tickets for sale via a telephone, an internet or a physical ticket booth, for example. The ticket broker receives a request to purchase a ticket for a particular event or transportation carrier from a customer. If the ticket for the particular event is available, ticket broker sells the customer the ticket. Sometimes the ticket broker provides the customer with confirmation information representing that the ticket has been purchased. The ticket broker updates a database of ticket information to reflect that the ticket has been sold to the customer. Sometime before the event, the ticket broker notifies the various businesses how many and which tickets of the blocks of tickets have been sold. The ticket broker typically receives payment for the ticket directly from the customer for forwarding to the various businesses. In this case, the ticket broker forwards the ticket to the customer either directly or via land mail with a receipt representing that the payment has been received. Typically, the ticket broker receives a commission from either the customer or the various businesses for the effort to broker tickets from the various businesses and the customers.
A problem with conventional reservation systems, such as ticket brokers, is that the customer may not know how to get to the place where the event or transportation carrier is located after the customer made the reservation. Most of the time, ticket brokers assume that the customer knows where the event or transportation carrier is located and does not provide any directions describing to the customer how to get to the event or transportation carrier. Sometimes ticket broker gives customers a geographic map on paper or brief and general written text directions on paper indicating the general location of the event or transportation carrier. However, the geographic map and written text directions typically do not include the customer's present geographic location and do not provide much comfort to customers that find map or text reading challenging, especially when driving alone. Generally, after the ticket broker sells the ticket, the ticket broker does not provide the customer with any assistance on how to get to the event or transportation carrier. Hence, customers, traveling to the event or transportation carrier to claim their reserved seat, are often left to find their own way by using a paper or an electronic map, or to ask directions to the event or transportation carrier from other people while traveling to the event or the transportation carrier.
Conventional navigation systems include, for example, telematic systems. Telematic systems generally include a locating device, such as a global positioning satellite (GPS) receiver, a memory unit for storing an electronic geographic map and a processor. Typically, a telematic system is carried with a mobile vehicle, such as a passenger car. The GPS receiver determines the location of the mobile vehicle on the surface of the earth. The processor correlates the determined location of the mobile vehicle on the surface of the earth relative to features on the electronic geographic map to assist a driver of the mobile vehicle with geographic navigation while driving.
A particular application of a telematic system involves assisting drivers of mobile vehicles with directions for locating parking facilities having available parking spaces. U.S. Pat. No. 5,748,107, issued May 5, 1998, entitled “Method And Apparatus For Locating An Available Parking Facility,” U.S. Pat. No. 5,293,163, issued Mar. 8, 1994, entitled “Navigation Apparatus For Vehicles,” U.S. Pat. No. 5,648,906, issued Jul. 15, 1997, entitled “Networked Computerized Parking System Of Networked Computerized Parking Meters And A Method Of Operating Said System,” U.S. Pat. No. 5,831,552, issued Nov. 3, 1998, entitled “Traffic Information Display Unit,” each disclose various methods and systems for locating parking facilities having available parking spaces. Generally, a method and a system sends information regarding parking space availability to a mobile vehicle responsive to a location of the mobile vehicle and a user's request. The mobile vehicle's location may be determined by a GPS system. A processor, carried by the mobile vehicle, correlates the determined location of the mobile vehicle on the surface of the earth relative to features on an electronic geographic map, carried by the mobile vehicle, to assist a driver of the mobile vehicle with geographic navigation to a parking facility while driving.
A problem with conventional navigation systems, such as telematic systems used to locate parking facilities, is that they do not accept reservations for a good or a service from a customer. For example, as in the telematic system used to locate a parking facility, a driver can locate various parking facilities based on the drivers input conditions, such as a price of the parking space, a geographic boundary of a parking facility acceptable to the driver and a time of arrival of the driver. However, after a driver determines a desirable parking facility having an available parking space and begins to drive to the parking facility with the help of a GPS receiver and an electronic geographic map, there is no guarantee that the parking space will still be available by the time the driver arrives at the parking facility. Most parking garages offer available parking spaces on a predetermined and prepaid reservation basis, such as monthly, or on a first come first serve basis. Therefore, while this type of telematic system helps the driver to find a desirable parking facility, this system may fail to help the driver achieve an ultimate goal of parking the mobile vehicle, if the parking spaces are taken by other mobile vehicles before the driver arrives at the parking facility.
In summary, conventional reservation systems operate independently of conventional navigation systems. Customers desiring to make reservations must communicate only with the conventional reservation system. Customers desiring navigation information must rely only on the conventional navigation system. Since these two systems operate independently, customers gain no advantage from synergy and optimization of a combination reservation and navigation system.
Accordingly, there is a need for a combination reservation and navigation system and method therefor to permit a customer to make a reservation for a good or a service offered by a business and located at a business geographic location, and to permit the customer to receive navigation information to assist the customer in traveling from a customer geographic location to the business geographic location.